Chapter 102

A LITTLE LATER MONDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 21

At breakfast, Joyce, still in her uniform, was quiet, obviously tired, as she listlessly ate her food. When she finished, Diana urged her toward the door, shushing her protests about helping with cleanup. "Go get some sleep, Love. You work; we don't."

Diana locked eyes with Jeff, then nodded toward Joyce as she left the kitchen. Jeff kissed his Queen and hurried after Joyce. A couple of minutes later, in the big walk-in closet, he took her gun belt out of her hand and hung it on the padded peg that he had mounted for that purpose.

"Feels good to get rid of that," she sighed as she stripped her shirt off and popped the Velcro loose to allow her to slip out of her body armor. Jeff wasn't sure whether she meant her gun belt or the armor, or both as he took the vest from her and hung it on a strong hanger. Her clothes went into her dirty clothes hamper and she soon stood nude before him.

"You have a beautiful body to go with that pretty face," he said, and she knew he meant the compliment.

"Thank you. You're kinda special yourself," she said, leaning against him and snuggling her head to his shoulder.

"Why so tired this morning?" he quietly asked. "Rough shift?"

She pulled back a little to look up into his face. "It started out with a bang, but after that, it just died. I swear boredom is worse than a shift that's wide open. First call, though, I got in a foot chase with a burglar. I chased him between two houses and straight into Samson. And I mean that literally. The guy was looking behind to see how close I was and trying to run at the same time. He wasn't good at multitasking," she grinned. "I was gaining on him and had already chased him for a couple of blocks. Samson stepped from behind the house right into the burglar's path. The guy hit that mountain of a man going full out. The burglar bounced off and hit the ground. Samson just stood and chuckled as I handcuffed the asshole.

"The burglar didn't resist at all. I think he was knocked breathless when he hit Samson. I was out of breath from the chase, and had to wait a few minutes to get enough energy to walk the guy back to my car. I finally got my breath back, marched him down the road and put him in my vehicle. Samson, or one of the other deputies, could have taken the guy to my vehicle while I was recovering, but they let me do it. The homeowner and several of the neighbors saw me with the handcuffed burglar, and cheered. The guys wanted me to get the credit for catching the burglar, but it was a team effort. I'm not sure whether I could have caught him or not, let alone taken him down after the foot chase, but..."

"I know," Jeff said, kissing her forehead, "but that's what a team does. I worry about you, and it makes me feel a little better when you tell me how you guys take care of each other. I'm alive because of my team, and on occasion I have returned the favor," he said, understanding.

Joyce snuggled back in Jeff's arms. "After that little episode, the shift just died. All the drunks, burglars and domestic disputes went to bed or something. I didn't get a call the rest of the shift. I was so bored that I must have checked every business on my beat at least three times. I kept getting sleepy, so I went in every place that was open and got a cup of coffee. I swear, the shifts are either boredom or chaos ... and sometimes I think I prefer chaos," she sighed.

"Adrenalin junkie," he teased.

"You should talk," she shot right back at him with a grin.

Jeff hugged her for a moment, then she sniffed, "I smell," she said, wrinkling her nose. "My tee shirt smelled like mildew when I took it off, too. Probably came from sweating on it when I chased that guy. I need to get a shower before I go to sleep on my feet," she groggily finished.

Jeff quickly dropped his clothes and followed her into the shower. She stood leaning against him as he quickly soaped a sponge and gently washed her. After drying her with a fluffy towel, he picked her up and took her to bed.

"Make love to me, Husband," she said, turning on her side to face him as they lay together. He gently kissed her lips and stroked her back. A moment later, her eyes closed and her breathing deepened. After a quiet snore from her, Jeff smiled, caressed the side of her head one more time, pulled the sheet up, turned the light out and left his wife to rest.

Diana met her husband in the hallway outside the living room. "I think we have a problem."

"What?" Jeff answered, frowning. "What's wrong?"

"I don't really know," she said, taking his hand. "It's Jennie. She's been a little too quiet the whole weekend. Haven't you noticed?"

Jeff thought for a second. "Yeah, I guess I did. I asked her yesterday if anything was wrong, and she said she was just thinking about something they were working on in class. I guess I didn't pay any attention after that. You sure there's something else?"

"Look," Diana said. Still holding his hand, she drew him to the door, then nodded toward Jennie who was sitting with her feet curled under her on a couch farther down the living room. She appeared to be just staring into space with a phone laying in her lap.

The Prime and his Queen looked at each other. "Oh, shit," he whispered. "That's not like her."

They took a step back into the hallway. "I tried to talk to her yesterday and the day before. Each time I did, she would brighten up and claim nothing was wrong. But something is wrong. It's strong enough that I can feel it, but I don't know what it is. See if she'll talk to you," Diana encouraged.

"Me?" he said. "You're the Queen. I'll say something stupid, or worse. I've already asked her, but she obviously didn't want to talk to me about whatever is bothering her."

Diana pulled his face down to lightly kiss his lips. "Don't give me that 'I'm a man and I don't know anything about women' crap. Go hold your wife and tell her you love her. Even if she won't tell you what's wrong, she still needs you. Now go," she finished, giving him a gentle push through the door.

Jeff, hesitant, walked over to his young wife, sat and gently took her in his arms. Jennie was stiff at first, not really resisting him, but not readily relaxing into his arms, either. She sat, his arm around her and her head against his shoulder, saying nothing.

She's tense. She usually molds herself to me when I hold her. I've already asked her what was wrong. What am I supposed to do? She's obviously upset about something, but I can't think of anything I've done wrong. Well, not to her, anyway. I did screw up with Kayla, but I apologized for that, and made love to her. She seems fine now. Is Jennie jealous of my making love to Kayla? None of my wives have ever shown jealousy before — well, that I noticed, anyway. Shit, what's going on? First I have problems with Kayla, now Jennie. I don't know whether to release some pheromones or not. Would that help, or piss her off? Shit, I'm a man. Doesn't Diana realize that I don't know shit about women? Maybe it's PMS. No, that can't be. Little One took care of that. They aren't having periods anymore, and won't have until we decide to have kids and Little One turns my mates' baby factories back on.

Jennie started to cry, which he first realized when he felt a wet spot on his shirt. He tilted her face up and touched his lips to hers. That really started the waterworks. Still there was no sound, just a flood of tears down her cheeks. The tears scared him more than a near miss with a bullet. "Baby, what have I done? I promise I didn't mean to do it. Please tell me what I've done wrong."

"It's not you," she snuffled. "It's just ... I think something's wrong with Hope."

"Hope? Your sister, Hope?" he inanely said. Of course it's her sister, you idiot. How many Hopes does she know? he silently admonished himself.

"Yeah. Oh, I don't know. It's probably nothing, but..."

Jeff got up, yanked a drawer open and found a box of tissue. Reseating himself and pulling her to him again, he waited as she wiped her eyes and blew her nose. "Tell me, please."

Jennie sniffed, the tears still trickling down her cheeks, her voice trembling a little, "Hope has been ... oh, I don't know, just sounding withdrawn, I guess. Not like herself for the last several weeks. I don't really know when it started. I guess I finally realized that it had been going on for a while. You know that I talk to her on the phone; she's just a little more than a year younger than me. She was upset when I left with you. She thought we could have ... straightened out what was going on with Dad and Mom.

"According to Hope, Daddy was really mad at you for taking me away, but he was scared of you and the judge. He was afraid that you would have him put in jail..."

"Baby, I've never been proud of what I did to get you, but we were already irrevocably linked because of my pheromones. You know that..."

Jennie's head snapped up to stare at Jeff. "I could not stay there. I had to be with you. Melissa and I both. Don't blame yourself for anything you had to do to get us. Besides, Daddy is a shit. Don't ever think that your making love with Arlene, and what Daddy was doing to Hope when we walked in that night are the same thing. You make love to us — all your wives. Daddy didn't make love to Hope and me; he just fucked us. He didn't give a shit about pleasing us, only himself."

Jeff kissed a tear away. "Okay, okay, but let's get back to Hope. Tell me what you think is going on."

Jennie dabbed her eyes one last time. "Like I said, I'm not sure. It's just that she has been sounding different on the phone the last few weeks — often withdrawn — and she sometimes tells me something, then a few days later when we're talking, she contradicts herself, or says something different, changes things. Like maybe she was lying about something she said, then forgot the lie and said something else. One time, when she didn't answer her cell, she said she had been to a ball game with her boyfriend on Friday night and had shut her phone off. I didn't even know she had a boyfriend. Then a couple days later, she said she had gone to the mall on Friday night. I guess she could have done both, but she's said things that didn't make sense, more than once. It's just not like her. She's smart. She doesn't make mistakes like that."

"So she's done something like that again?"

"No ... Now she doesn't answer her phone. She either doesn't have it on, or she's out of the reception area or something. I get a recording when I try to call her. That's been going on the whole weekend, and ... I just feel that something is wrong. I know it is."

"I suppose you have tried her home phone?"

"Yeah, nobody answers. And that's part of the problem. Hope said that Hal (Hope and Jennie's brother) went to live with Uncle Mack almost a month ago..."

"Yeah, you told me about that."

"Well, anyway, I've only talked to Hal once since then. He was curt ... which isn't unusual for him, but he just sounded different. He wouldn't tell me why he left home, or why Mother and Daddy let him. I don't talk to Mom much. And I don't talk to Daddy at all. You know why I don't talk to Daddy, but I do talk to Mom every now and then. But I haven't talked to her in weeks. Hope always tells me Mom is shopping or something. I don't think Mom is even at home anymore. Something is going on, but I don't know what. Now, I haven't been able to get Hope on the phone at all for several days, and ... I'm worried. Something is wrong."

Jeff just held her for a couple of minutes. He opened his mouth to tell her everything was probably all right, and Hope would likely call soon, but he hesitated. Jennie didn't overreact. If she said something was wrong with Hope, chances were that she was right. Question is, what can I do about it? he thought.

"I can have Mark go by your house and check on things. I'm sure he would be glad to."

But Jennie was shaking her head. "Daddy just about hates me now. If the police start asking him questions..."

"Or we could hire a private investigator to check things out without alerting your family, I guess. Other than that, I don't know what else to do, Baby."

Jennie sighed. "I know. But let's wait a while before we involve the police or do anything else. Maybe she'll call. When I do get her on the phone, though, I'm going to find out what's going on. Something is. I just know it is."

Jeff continued to sit and hold his wife until she had to get up and go to the bathroom. He went looking for Diana to bring her up to date on what little he had learned.

Later, Dave met Jeff in the living room. "Just to remind you that the attorneys will be here at ten to close on the deal for the property that lies between us and the Spermans."

"Yeah, I remember. How are things going with the changes in the ski lodge/security building?"

"We should finish up by tomorrow night. Not having to wait for an inspector to come out helped a lot. I've never failed an inspection yet, but it's sometimes a bitch having to wait on an inspection before starting the next stage of a job. The General's people laid out what they wanted, I did it, and they quickly okayed the job. That's good enough for me. For all practical purposes, it's a military operation, despite the fact you own the building. I imagine what few people live on the county road think the old ski lodge is still abandoned, and with the road blocked on the first turn past our driveway, no one will ever know the difference. Lieutenant Mayfield said he was to contact the General if a civil inspector came out sniffing around, and he (the General) would take care of it.

"I had one big crew working on the damage the tree and avalanche caused, and another big crew making the changes that Lieutenant Mayfield needed for his security setup. Mayfield tells me there will probably be more changes later, but things should work fine for a while the way they are."

"When do you finish Helen's classrooms?"

"We're almost finished with remodeling Carla's house and building the RV garage. Just a couple more days. I'm going to have to wait until spring to put up the rockwork to match the outside of the garage to the barn and house, though. The bricklayers can't do very much with it so cold their mud freezes on the trowel. I'll have the original crew that worked on the classrooms back here by Wednesday. Shouldn't take more than a couple of days to finish up.

"I've talked with Helen a couple of times about her classrooms, but she was adamant that finishing Carla and Jessica's house while they are on vacation is more important, just as you instructed me to do. She tells me that the temporary classrooms and her office are better than anything she has ever had in the school system, anyway. The lady is a class act," he finished.

"Yeah," Jeff quietly said, "and to think we almost lost her to a heart attack."